lily, james, and a bag of chips
by Baroonmlk
Summary: a cozy evening, gryffindor common room, sixth year.


"evans!"

Lily turns her head in the direction of the voice, and her eyes land on a tall figure tottering its way towards her. james potter has never really been known for his gracious manners of walking, he is usually either staggering or tripping over something or running, as if he is this energetic little boy who can't contain the cracking fireballs of liveliness inside him, or his lanky legs. He plops down right beside lily on the couch she was hoping to posses for the rest of the night, and hands her a bag of crisps.

"is this mine?"

"no, it's actually padfoot's, and he might find his way into your dormitory tonight and strangle you when you're asleep if you eat them, but I'm also afraid the damage's already done and he's probably found out by now, and you'll die tonight one way or the other… so if I were you, I'd at least die with a full stomach."

Lily tries hard to suppress the smile that has crept its way to her mouth, puting her book upside down on her lap to mark where she was, and to james's surprise, she takes the bag easily, theatrically opens it, and starts on the crisps. A comfortable silence settles between them (although the only voice around them is lily's chewing, much to lily's chagrin), and james's eyes soar around the common room until they drift to lily's book, and he leans in to take the book for further inspections. The title on the book reads "_The Hunchback of Notre dame"_, and she couldn't resist the urge to bring this and a few other classics to Hogwarts, albeit other's displeasure. Mary, for one, insists that lily keeps her muggle-related belongings to herself, but lily hardly pays her any heed.

She decides to break the silence; "you didn't have to lie to me, you know."

James looks up, rather confused. "you didn't have to say it was sirius's. I would have taken it, anyway."

He says nothing, but lily is sure she caught the corners of his lips twisting upwards infinitesimally.

"also, the next time you wanted to buy me crisps, keep in mind my desirable taste is lemon."

This time she manages to get a proper response of him. James puts the book down, and turns his astonished eyes on her, saying; "Merlin, Evans, I thought the only ones who bought the lemon crisps were the goblins!"

"nah… that was actually me." Says lily, waving a hand dismissively.

"also, I'm not lying, the bag was lifted from sirius's trunk and carried down to you in hopefully a very subtle style."

"you heard me the other day when I was telling mary how much I miss having a bite of these. I guess I was complaining quite loudly…"

James grins mockingly, "you were practically mourning!"

"so you sneaked out of the school to buy me some? _Why oh why_ did you come so late to me, superman?" she says dramatically, but james only looks baffled. "who's superman?"

"no one important… but honestly, where did you get these? I already know Sirius had none, we consumed his stash something about three weeks ago. Also he prefers spicy, not salty. Did you go all the way back to London? Where did you get the muggle currency?"

"took the secret passageway out to hogsmeade, apparated to the leaky cauldron, barbed the old tom there not to give me away to my parents, and got some muggle cash from him. How do you use them by the way? They're the most mystifying things I've ever seen…"

He keeps rambling on, and thus misses lily's expression, but if he didn't, he could see the green eyes were all but gleaming with delight. He narrated the story as if it was nothing significant or as if it was the most natural thing to go through so much for a mere bag of snacks, and merlin knew it was most probably what he always did, doing things like this, but she couldn't help when she burst out with laughter at the image of james, on a mission in search of some crisps, marching around London muggleshops in his wizardry robes, asking desperately for help on the pounds and cents, and couldn't contain her mirth when she thought of someone asking james' name, and him, charmingly waving his glasses in his hands, muttering "_potter, james potter."_. She keeps laughing and doesn't try the slightest to conceal her amusement, because she learned long ago not to deny herself of the simpler pleasures of existence.

James has stopped talking sometime ago, and he is now staring at her bewilderedly, but lily, '_oh for satin's sake' _can't stop laughing, so he eventually gives up on asking altogether and patiently waits for her to get a grip.

"you really are different, james, in a slightly pleasant way." She says after some time as she examines him fondly.

"I bet you say that to all the boys who go on international travels to buy you refreshments."

And whether it's for the coziness of the common room or the comforting sound of the fire cracking or simply the lameness of everything, lily doesn't know, but for a small eternity, she feels like everything is going to be okay.


End file.
